The field of the invention is systems and methods by which consumers may manage marketing data that is collected about them.
Today, mass marketing is falling out of favor and more and more marketing is targeted toward groups of consumers with particular characteristics. The goal of this targeted marketing is to deliver a marketing message that is more likely to be of interest to the consumer, and thus create a greater return on investment for the retailer that is expending a portion of its advertising and marketing budget on the marketing message. At the same time, targeted advertising benefits the consumer because the consumer is receiving marketing messages that are more likely to be of interest, and is less likely to be delivered marketing messages that are of no interest or are a nuisance to the consumer.
In order to target advertisements to the most appropriate consumers, marketers collect data about the consumers. As the ability of marketers to collect data about consumers continues to grow, and the size and breadth of the databases that contain this data also grow, there has been an increasing desire on the part of consumers to have input on whether and how marketing data is collected and how it is used. The collection of such large amounts of data that is personal to consumers raises important privacy concerns, and the security of this information is a critical factor in the minds of consumers.
Consumers differ in how they wish to address the issues related to the collection of consumer data. Some consumers simply do not wish for marketers to collect data about them at all, and thus are willing to receive only mass-marketed messages that often are not relevant to them rather than allow the collection of data that would allow marketers to formulate a more targeted marketing message. Many consumers, on the other hand, prefer the targeted marketing messages made possible by the collection of this data, but are concerned about the security of this data. There are a growing number of consumers that are interested in establishing a quid pro quo with marketers—that there is value in offering up personal information in exchange for better information or more personalized offers. They see their data as something of value, and they wish to receive some return on that value from the marketers that use the data. As a result of these changing perceptions among consumers, the way that marketing is happening is changing dramatically. Nevertheless, many of these consumers remain concerned about the accuracy of the data that is collected about them, since if there are errors in this data the consumers may receive messages targeted to a person unlike them.
For a number of years, marketers have been offering “opt out” to consumers with respect to offline direct marketing, such as direct mail marketing campaigns. In the opt-out model, consumers may, if they choose, elect not to have personal data collected about them for marketing purposes, or not have that data used in marketing efforts. In some cases, opt out simply meant removing a particular consumer from a marketing list, such as a list used for telemarketing purposes. In some cases these opt-out lists have been maintained under various state laws, and in other cases they have been maintained by industry, marketing companies or retailers. The opt-out process has historically been a passive effort, because the only choice the consumer has is whether or not to opt out of receiving the marketing message. The consumer has no ability in this simple opt-out model to make any other choices concerning his or her data, cannot review data collected about him or her, and cannot augment or correct data about him or her. The existing opt-out model does not match up well with developing consumer attitudes and desires with respect to marketing information.
There is a growing consensus among both consumers and marketers that digital marketing needs to move toward a more consumer-controlled model, where the consumer has greater input with regard to marketing directed to that consumer and data collected about that consumer. While this model is of benefit to consumers, it is also believed that it benefits the marketers. For example, consumers who are empowered to review, correct, and augment the data collected about them enable the marketers to do a better job of targeting appropriate marketing messages to that consumer. Likewise, allowing consumers greater control over when and how marketing messages are delivered to them may improve the return-on-investment for the retailers who are paying for those marketing messages. It may be seen that a system and method that allows consumers to have greater power with respect to marketing data collected about them would be highly desirable; such a system and method, however, must be designed in order to allow the consumer to have this power while also protecting the privacy of data collected for each consumer. In particular, such a system and method should carefully authenticate the consumer before providing access to the consumer's data, in order to prevent fraud and to protect the privacy of the consumer.